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How to Email a Professor and Actually Get a Response About PhD Programs

notatechdemo.substack.com · 1,647 words · saved by 1 readers

I’m a first-generation college student, and I didn’t have a lot of advice about how to do college or graduate school. This included how to write professional emails to introduce myself to new professors. So when I applied to PhD programs the first time, I had no idea how to email professors. Now, I’m a computer science professor. I get hundreds of emails from students who want to work together. Many copy/paste from my most recent abstract on Google Scholar, claiming the research is exactly what they want to do for a PhD, and that they find the work "resonating" or "intriguing". Or they are so heavily edited by ChatGPT that I can’t tell what ideas were the students’ versus the AI. Ugh. These emails all get an equally generic copy/paste response or go straight to the trash. Let me be clear – there are some surefire strategies to annoy professors with emails, but there are also ways to make these emails more effective and more likely to receive a response. This post will guide you through

How to Email a Professor and Actually Get a Response About PhD Programs from someone who gets hundreds of emails about admissions Stevie Chancellor Sep 16, 2025 29 8 1 Share I searched for a long time for a not corny photo for this blog. I decided that I liked their nail polish and nail ring. Photo by Vardan Papikyan on Unsplash I’m a first-generation college student, and I didn’t have a lot of advice about how to do college or graduate school. This included how to write professional emails to introduce myself to new professors. So when I applied to PhD programs the first time, I had no idea h

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